This invention relates to improvements in trailer hitches and especially to hitches used in situations where repeated hitching and unhitching operations must be made quickly, easily, and safely.
During a hitching operation, difficulty in the past centered around coupling the draft member of the trailer to the hitching means of the tractor. Where registration of the draft member and the hitching means was not precise, the operator was faced with either jockying the towing vehicle or moving the trailer to effect alignment. Both of these alternatives proved difficult and time consuming.
The prior art discloses a number of attempts towards remedying the problem. Demarest, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,820,649 and 2,871,029, as well as Lyons U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,267 and Allen U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,254, show coupling mechanisms which permit hitching a towing vehicle to a trailer where they are merely in reasonably close proximity, rather than in precise alignment.
There is, however, considerable room for improvement.